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Every year, I do a number of excursions for outdoor beamshots. In this thread, I thought I would compile all my 2011 shots into one large compedium. To compare earlier lights, please see my 2010 outdoor beamshot roundup.

This thread is organized two ways:

In batches, organized by excursion month. Within each batch, you will see thumbnail images of each full-size 24-bit color JPEG, organized alphabetically by maker/model. Just click on the thumbail to open the full image in a new tab. You can then do your own comparisons within the same batch by simply clicking between the tabs (i.e., flip between images).

Master list by maker and model number. Each model has a link to the full review thread for that light. After the model name, there are direct links to the full size 24-bit JPEG images from each excursion batch. Just click on the links to open the images in a new tab. You can then flip between them, as described above.

So, if you want to jump right to a specific light, scroll down to the bottom of this thread and select right from the master list.

Before we get started, please bear with me with some general background on how to interpret these images.

External beamshots are tricky to do well. The shots will never match what you see, due to limitations of the camera relative to your eye (e.g. lower dynamic range, limited settings, etc.). There are also numerous compensations in your brain/visual system (e.g. pupil responses, dynamic white balancing, etc.). When you throw in varying natural lighting conditions (e.g. moonshine, clouds reflecting ambient light, wind, fog, etc.), plus all the 3D topographical landscape features that can confound a single light source, you get quite a lot to deal with!

I have picked a location that seems reasonably well suited to this task - a closed and deserted service road. Here is an aerial view taken from Google maps:

There is a straight line from my position (pictogram) along the road, to a copse of tree located 100 yards away. There is a dead birch tree right at the red arrow-head that is a convenient marker for the photos. I’ve also highlighted a point 30 yards from my position (blue arrow). The reason for this is shown on the side schematic for this area:

As this road goes along a ravine, and there is a significant elevation drop beginning about 30 yards in. The road makes a hard right turn as it winds down the ravine. Here is a control shot in daylight:

This shot is taken at eye level, and I have centered the camera on the dead birch tree at the center of the copse of trees at 100 yards (red arrow). The blue arrow indicates the point at 30 yards beyond which the road "falls out of view" as it dips down.

I have angled the flashlights directly above the camera, focused on the center of that dead birch tree. Because of the positioning, this means that a good amount of the hotspot's corona should light up the road up to that ~30 yard mark. You will thus be able to see not only the center beam throw at 100 yards, but the corona and wider spillbeam in the foreground just in front of the camera.

Note: Although you can't see them in the daylight shot, there are a series of communication towers located in a clearing ~650 yards away. The red aerial warning lights on these towers will show up as distant red dots in the background of the night time shots. There's also a photo-reflective sign along the bottom portion of the road that you will notice in the flashlight shots.

Unless otherwise indicated, all lights were run on Max, on the highest rechargeable battery option the light would take. The camera settings are optimized to show off the hotspots specifically (i.e., the pics look considerably under-exposed relative to what I subjectively saw during shooting). The pics use a 5 sec exposure, f2.7, ISO 80, automatic white balance (to minimize tint differences, which can be distracting).

Images are organized first by batch, with thumbnail images that link to the high resolutions images. At the end of the thread, there is an alphabetical list sorted by maker and model, with text links to the full review and the individual batch high resolution pics.

----------------

BATCH 1 – JUNE 2011

Armytek

4Sevens

Eagletac

Fenix

Jetbeam

Lumintop

Olight

Ray Tactical

Skilhunt

Sunwayman

Tiablo

Thrunite

----------------

BATCH 2 – AUGUST 2011

4Sevens

Eagletac

Fenix
JetBeam

Olight

Lumintop

Spark

Streamlight

Surefire

Thrunite

Zebralight

----------------

BATCH 3 – OCTOBER 2011

4Sevens

ITP

Jetbeam

Olight

Nitecore

Surefire

Sunwayman

Thrunite

Xeno

---------------

BATCH 4 – DECEMBER 2011

Crelant

Jetbeam

Lumintop

Nitecore

Niwalker

Olight

Thrunite

Xtar

---------------

MASTER LIST OF ALL 2011 OUTDOOR BEAMSHOTS

Here is a text list of all the lights, sorted alphabetically by maker and model. Click on the links to access the full review text, or the individual batch high-resolution pics. If you like, you can search for specific lights by pressing Ctrl-F on your keyboard.

Great work Selfbuilt! Whenever I'm contemplating a new light, I ALWAYS look first to see if you have done a review on it. They're always so informative and helpful! Keep up the fantastic reviews on all the latest for us flashaholics

Thanks,
Dan

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (Ephesians 5:8 NIV)

This is awesome and extremely helpful. I just joined CPF because I am in search of a good flashlight. Looking through the forum makes my decision more difficult because there are so many great options out there. Thanks for your hard work putting this together.

I have created backup copies of some of the reviews on that site as well (for times when CPF is down). But I prefer that people access the content here on CPF, as I find the discussion threads that follow the reviews are incredibly useful. It's great to get all the feedback and perspectives/experiences of the other users.

Oh my God, is reviewing LEDs your job or are you just chronicly passionate about lights? Perfect article, thumbs up

Something like that I guess (the latter part, anyway).

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to do a similar compedium of my 2012 outdoor beamshots. But the individual reviews of high-output thrower lights have a lot of meaningful comparisons to other relevant lights.